Some of you know that I was out of town on business travel for NASA last week. Well wasn't all work, and I was able to take some time to go visit my mom in the Shenandoah Valley. I also got in some fishing on the Shenandoah river for some smallmouth bass. I also hit a really nice farm pond (lake) for some largemouth bass. Total count was 7 smallmouth and somewhere around 20 largemouth. None of them were huge (except the one huge smallie I lost) but the numbers made for some great fishin and you couldn't beat the back ground views of home that I miss a lot sometimes.

Looks great Derek..I spent 4th and 5th grades in Virginia...beautiful country

Thanks Dusty!! My first 18 years were spent huntin and fishin the Shenandoah Valley and mountains. Then other than three year in Hawaii while in the Air Force, the rest of my almost 52 years have been in Texas, 5 in San Antonio and the rest in Dickinson. I love Texas, but it is nice to go back and trace my teenage stompin grounds.....

Hunt In: Brazos County, Burleson County and anywhere else I get invited!

"Bassin"... very clever sir, I get it! I spent some time in Virginia myself in the Navy. Very beautiful state... er... common wealth. I was stationed in VA Beach at NAS Oceana. I would love to go back and visit. Wish I woulda spent more time outdoors and less time at the bar! You live and you learn though... glad you made it back there, looks amazing!

Derek, there is a possibility we might share some ancestry going waaay back.
My Daddy's people left Germany in the mid-1700's- one brother went to England and bought a commission - he was assigned the the king's bodyguard contingent. The other came to America and settled in Rockingham County in the Virginia colony and fought with Washington to gain our independence (I have the documentation and guess I could petition to become a DAR but I'm not that much of a "joiner"). Anyway, if your family has been in the Shenandoah Valley going back several generations, we might be kin!

That is absolutely gorgeous country and I'd love to get up there one day and spend some time (and some genealogy work, too).

Derek, there is a possibility we might share some ancestry going waaay back.
My Daddy's people left Germany in the mid-1700's- one brother went to England and bought a commission - he was assigned the the king's bodyguard contingent. The other came to America and settled in Rockingham County in the Virginia colony and fought with Washington to gain our independence (I have the documentation and guess I could petition to become a DAR but I'm not that much of a "joiner"). Anyway, if your family has been in the Shenandoah Valley going back several generations, we might be kin!

That is absolutely gorgeous country and I'd love to get up there one day and spend some time (and some genealogy work, too).

Well it looks like I might have to pull out the genealogy work my mom did some time ago. I am of German and Irish decent from what I remember and most of the family has been in Rockingham and surrounding counties dating back to 1700s. I know there are some Herrings and Herons here in Texas that I am kin to so it is a real possibility we have some of the same old blood....

Well it looks like I might have to pull out the genealogy work my mom did some time ago. I am of German and Irish decent from what I remember and most of the family has been in Rockingham and surrounding counties dating back to 1700s. I know there are some Herrings and Herons here in Texas that I am kin to so it is a real possibility we have some of the same old blood....

Emphasis on the OLD blood (in my case, anyway). I get the German from Daddy's side and English + Choctaw or Cherokee from Mother's (she was an Okie).
I flatter myself to think we might have a connection that far back, but it would be cool (for me!). The son of the original patriarch eventually moved to Tennessee, then to Indiana, and to Texas in 1860 (one brother) and my branch's brother came in 1865, so they were only in Virginia until around 1820 or so. You had such beautiful country to grow up in! I love Texas, but the mid-cities area of the DFW metroplex scenery just can't compare to the Shenandoah Valley.